START OUT WATCHABLE AND BUILD FROM THERE:

Harry Potter Grows Up: "The Prisoner of Azkaban" is the best Harry Potter movie yet. (Jonathan V. Last, 06/04/2004, Weekly Standard)

THERE ARE THREE LESSONS to be learned from Warner Bros.' handling of the Harry Potter franchise. The first, is that no price is too great to pay for a property like Harry Potter. In 1997 producer David Heyman paid $500,000 to option the first novel for Warner Bros. At the time, it was a fair amount for an unproven commodity. The first two Harry Potter movies have grossed a combined $1.85 billion--just in their theatrical release. Count rentals, DVD sales, and broadcast rights and the number is probably closer to $2.5 billion. If J.K. Rowling were to ask for $100 million for rights to her next book, it would be a bargain.

The second lesson is that the movies didn't need to be any good. Directed by Christopher Columbus, The Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were pedestrian affairs. The product of robotic adaptations, the screenplays were clunky and inelegant and designed mostly to guard against criticisms of deviation. Can you name a single scene from either movie that sticks in your mind? Me neither.

Not that it matters. People were paying to see the characters from Rowling's wonderful books brought to life. And so long as these first two movies weren't terrible, they were bound to be enormously successful.

Which brings us to the third lesson: It is possible that Warner Bros. chose Columbus to direct the first two movies precisely because he is so middling. If The Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets had been masterpieces, they hardly could have done better business. Now that we're into the meat of the series, the novelty of seeing the books on film has worn off and the movies need to stand on their own. So by trading Columbus for Cuarón, The Prisoner of Azkaban couldn't help but be an improvement--it is unequivocally the best Harry Potter movie yet. And since Mike Newell is directing The Goblet of Fire--the next installment of the franchise--it seems likely that that will be the best Harry Potter movie yet.

By slowly trading up in directorial talent, Warner Bros. is ensuring that each movie is better than the last, thus hedging against any letdown. By book seven, we could have Michael Mann directing. It's good business sense--and certainly smarter than trying for perfection from the first frame. If the first Harry Potter movie had been a classic, the series might have collapsed under its own weight. [...]

Alan Rickman returns as Professor Snape and continues to dazzle in his small, but important, role. (My pet theory is that Snape, not Harry, is the true hero of the series.)

Snape is at least Arthur Slugworth.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2004 10:16 PM